For the
many friends who have not been with us through the
earlier gatherings, let me say the very briefest possible
word by way of retrospect. We have been led at this time
to be occupied with the revelation of Jesus Christ. We
feel that the Lord has led us in this way with more than
the object of just studying some thing, but as related to
the movements toward the consummation of this age which
we feel are so evidently taking place and that therefore,
in the final scenes, the Lord is culminating and
consummating His Testimony on this earth, it is very
necessary for His Church to be very clear as to their
position. And that position is essentially and
inseparably a matter of understanding exactly what the
Christian life and the Christian Church is and the
Testimony which is entrusted to them.

So we have
spent nearly three days with the first three chapters of
the book of the Revelation, particularly noting that as
that book does bring to this culmination and consummation
of everything in the age, the Lord takes very careful
pains to give a full-orbed, clearly-defined, presentation
of His Son. The significance of the very first chapter of
that book is that Christ overshadows everything. Christ
encompasses everything. Christ stands before everything
as the Standard of God. And then all that follows -
firstly in the dealing with the Church and then with the
nations and then with the kingdom of Satan and then the
bringing in of the eternal kingdom; all that is governed
by what Christ is, by that matchless presentation of
Himself. I go over that again in order that we may see
where we are, the setting of what we are saying today.

It has been
there that the main part of our time has found us. But
this morning we went back or over to the apostle Paul in
this connection and began to consider the content of his
words in the second of his Corinthian letters, chapter
four, verses five and six: "We preach not
ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, seeing it is God who
said Let light be, who shined in our hearts to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ." This morning we spent our time
with the beginning of what Paul saw in the face of Jesus
Christ. We did note right at the outset that what he saw,
or in seeing the face of Jesus Christ (which simply means
that the Spirit of God gave him an inward illumination or
revelation of Christ) what he saw in the face of Jesus
Christ brought about a tremendous revolution both in his
being and in his whole outlook. And the first thing that
he saw in the face of Jesus Christ or in the Person of
Jesus Christ, was God's Purpose.

Well, we
spent our morning time on Christ as the Purpose of God.
This afternoon we are going to be occupied with the
second thing that Paul saw in the face of Jesus Christ,
that is, he saw Christ as God's Pattern. I'm going to be
quite simple in the way I speak and in what I say this
afternoon because there are many young Christians here.
What I say, or the way in which I say it, I trust will
help them particularly; but I trust it will be, if
necessary, a corrective for us all.

It is
exceedingly difficult to convey the impression that must
have come upon Paul when he saw the Lord Jesus - that
time of which he speaks when he said, "it pleased
God to reveal His Son in me" - the tremendous effect
that it had upon that man. I wish it were possible to
convey to you something of that, because it is not in the
terms, the language or even in the teaching; it is in the
IMPACT that we shall have the value. You may
hear all that I have to say and missing that impact it
will be of very little value. I want you therefore, to
try to enter into this in spirit.

You see,
when Paul saw Jesus Christ by revelation of the Holy
Spirit, a WHOLE SYSTEM collapsed for him. It
completely collapsed! A whole mentality and way of
thinking was shattered; turned upside down, inside out.
He had to go right away into the desert. He spent two or
three years there to think this thing out, to reconstruct
everything in the light of THIS. It was indeed a
revolution in that man. And although we are Christians
and although we have all the teaching of Paul and the
other apostles, and we've got all the Christian tradition
of the centuries, I do feel, dear friends, that there's
the need of something like that with us. That we can have
a system, a Christian system, just as thorough, just as
complete, just as strong, with ALL its
ramifications and paraphernalia as the Jews had - without
the TREMENDOUS impact of it all. We can have it
all... Christianity has become so largely only another
Judaism in that sense; another system. I know it means
much to you... I would take nothing from all the
blessedness and reality Christ is to you, but still I
hold to this - that there's a great need of a revolution
even in the Church and in Christianity at this time and
the same kind of revolution caused by the same kind of
revelation as came to the apostle Paul. I trust that you
will at least begin to see something of this as I go on
on simple lines this afternoon.

We have got
to see as Paul saw Jesus as God's Pattern, Jesus as God's
Model. What Paul has shown us in his writings is that he
came to see that before ever this world was created,
before any of this cosmic system was set up, God had in
view the constituting of a universe on the basis of
sonship; His Son. HE was before all things. HE
was God's appointed mind concerning all things. And all
things were to be made with the embodiment of the
spiritual and eternal features of Christ. And when God
reaches His End, and we come out with the work completed,
finally, the thing that will obtain will be that in
everything perceptible, everything in the creation
revealing something of Jesus Christ. And oh, what a
wonderful universe that would be! If we meet a little bit
of Jesus Christ anywhere in anyone today, what a blessed
thing it is. But think of that being universal and
nothing else to it! Now that is what was in God's eye and
mind right back there in the eternity past. And so God
set in motion all the creative processes and, by reason
of necessity, all the redemptive processes, all the
elective processes, all the sovereign and providential
processes of His grace to work out this Pattern, to
perfect this design - all things according to Christ.
That's Paul's great phrase "According to
Christ!" according to Christ - that controls
everything. Now, Paul came to see that and that vision,
that perception and apprehension or revelation was the
governing motive, power and object of everything for him,
"for me to live", said he, "is
Christ".

Now then,
we can break that up into very simple questions and
answers. What is a Christian? What IS a
Christian? How interesting it would be if you were handed
out a half a sheet of note paper all of you and asked to
put down your answer. What is a Christian? What is Paul's
answer? What would your answer be? A person who believes
certain things about the Lord Jesus? A person who has
come to make the Jesus their Saviour, who has given
himself or herself to Christ? How would you put it? But
what is Paul's answer? Now that's the true one: a
Christian is a bit of Christ, a bit of Christ! Every true
Christian is a bit of Christ. We will bear that out more
fully as we go along. From God's standpoint now, and He
has laid the foundation for that, from God's standpoint
now, the only thing that concerns Him is our interest to
Him in you, in me, as Christians, as believers, is that
bit of Christ which we represent. That's all He's
concerned with where we are concerned; the bit of Christ
that we are. He's concerned first of all to have it as a
bit of Christ and then He is concerned to enlarge it to
something more of Christ and to bring it to as full a
measure of Christ as He can. And God's focus is upon the
bit of Christ that has been made a part of us, that has
been deposited in us by new birth. By new birth God has
deposited something of Christ in us. It may be a very
much smaller thing than all its surroundings - and we are
the surroundings, what we are - to begin with it may be,
but it is of transcendentally greater INTRINSIC
value than all the rest. To God it is THE value.
He is prepared to do anything in relation to that.

And so
every true Christian from God's standpoint is just a bit
of His Son. "God has sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba, Father."
Now I cannot gather up all the Scripture that proves
that, shows how that is, but that is the simple
beginning. What are you when you become a Christian? What
are you as a Christian? What is it that makes you a
Christian? What is the Christian and the Christian life,
what is it? Well now, strip it of everything that has
been gathered around it - men say this is what makes a
Christian, this and that and the other thing comprises a
Christian. Strip it of all that that has become the
accretion of Christianity and come right down to this: a
Christian is a bit of Christ. Go about this world, get
that mentality, realize that I am - not when I'm in the
meetings only, not when I'm with other Christians only,
but wherever I am - I am a bit of Christ. In that
measure, in that measure, where I am Christ is. People
have got to know it, that it is not I, a professing
Christian, a religious person, a person who belongs to
Christianity; but I in very reality as a bit of Christ
Himself. I am there in this world. For me to live is
Christ! Let's go on.

What is a
church? What is a church? Now then, what was Paul's idea
and mentality about churches? Do you really think that
Paul set out on a campaign to set up churches? To bring
churches into being? To build churches? Do you think
that? Do you think that his vision and his mission in his
mind was to see churches set up all over the world? Think
about that again, this is where we've got to rethink
things. When you use the word 'church' or 'churches'
you're only meaning companies of Christians, you're only
meaning groups living together, gathering together in
certain places on a basis of corporate life. I believe
most strongly that the apostle Paul would repudiate the
whole idea or suggestion that he felt himself chosen of
God to go about this world setting up churches. If you
asked him what his business was in this matter, why,
after having got the individual parts of Christ in
gathering them together and constituting them local
companies, fellowships, (churches if you like) if you'd
asked him why... he would simply answer you in the
simplest terms, I believe, and yet with very strong
feeling and conviction: that there should be a larger
expression of Christ in that place and by as many bits of
Christ brought together as possible, the measure of
Christ should be as strong in that place as possible. In
other words, just that CHRIST should be all the
more there! He's governed by this whole Pattern of God -
that Christ should fill all things! And he saw that two
is better than one and three is better than two in this
matter and the more bits of Christ brought together
(forgive me putting it like that, I must put it in
simplest language) the more bits of Christ there are
really brought together, so the stronger the IMPACT
of Christ in any place.

No, dear
friends, it is not God's idea to set up churches or
Christian fellowship centres or that sort of thing -
institutions and what not - that's not His idea at all.
Let's clear the whole mind on this matter. If any company
of Christians fails in THIS respect: to be there
a corporate and an adequate expression of the Lord Jesus,
the presence of Christ commensurate with their numbers or
their being there; they've failed in the purpose of their
existence in that place! There's no justification. I
believe that that is EXACTLY why the Lord said
to Ephesus as the representative church in which all were
included: "repent or I will remove thy lampstand
out of its place". ALTHOUGH there were
so many commendable things, they were THINGS!
Works, labours, yes toil, THINGS... but
evidently THE Thing was lost sight of in the
things. And THE Thing which, and which alone
justifies, and gives meaning to any local company of the
Lord's people, is not the people and not their procedure,
not their forms, but CHRIST! CHRIST is
met, CHRIST is found. Anybody who is seeking
Christ will find Him there and whether they are seeking
Him or not they will meet Him if they go there. It is
Christ!

So Paul
would say, Ephesus, Laodicea, Thyatira, Sardis, Corinth,
anywhere; I'm not out to set up a Christian church there,
I'm out to bring Christ there, to have Christ there and
the bringing together of these, may I use the word again,
bits of Christ, is only to increase the measure of
Christ. And if you want evidence from the other side that
this is so, remember that the great enemy knows the
implications of Christ; he knows the implications of the
presence of Christ and especially the presence of Christ
corporately expressed. And if there's one thing that the
enemy has set himself to do, it is to DESTROY
the fellowship of the Spirit of Christ - to scatter the
believers, to divide them, to BREAK UP this
unity of Christ because he knows THAT on the one
side weakens Christ, on the other side it strengthens his
kingdom. Well, there's no argument there at all, there's
no answer to that, that's a fact beyond any, any question
at all; that this matter of the RELATEDNESS of
Christians is the most contended thing in this universe.
What are churches? Why meet together? Just that. Just
that. Not the other in the mind of God, Christ is God's
Pattern.

Then what
about those two great things that belong to the Church
and the churches: baptism and the Lord's table. What are
we? Well, ask everywhere what kind of a church are you
and what do you do and, "Well, we believe in
baptism", various forms given to the name in
different times, "we believe in and practice
baptism." Do you? You believe in and practice
baptism of infants, you call it. You, there, believe in
and practice baptism of adults and believers. You believe
a little water will do, you believe that a lot of water
is necessary. However, baptism is a part of our order and
system because we believe that it's a New Testament part
of the Christian church and order. Is that all? Is that
all? See, you can never, never reach any conclusion of
the whole matter by arguing about the right and the wrong
of THIS method or THIS time. Don't you
try. The only way in which to settle this whole matter is
to stand right back and say, "What, according to the
revelation of Jesus Christ in the New Testament, does
this thing really indicate?" And Paul will give us
undoubted light on this matter. And he will tell us in an
accumulation of statements by him in this, "Why,
baptism... do you want to know what it is? Yes, it's
right it's right, but it's not an ordinance, it's not a
ceremony, it is not a rite, it is not a bit of ritual.
Baptism is just the way in which Christians say: one
whole thing has gone and Christ has taken its place. It's
something that testifies to the fact that now all the
ground is Christ's, we've died to all other ground.
Everything else has died and been buried, and now on this
ground of resurrection, it is only Christ!" And if
baptism doesn't mean that, it has no New Testament
meaning. You see, it's related to this One Thing! It is
not something to be just perpetuated and carried out
because it is something that they did at the beginning.
It is something which has got to be brought right up to
date with every new believer: that they have definitely
died and been buried to ALL that is not Christ!
It is a position taken. And now they live, and they live ONLY
for Christ - it is Christ. "I have been
crucified with Christ, it is NO longer I... but Christ".
That's utter isn't it? So it's not the thing, it's the
meaning.

What about
the Lord's table? Here again, we believe in the Lord's
supper, the holy communion or the Lord's table; whatever
phrase applies to the different sections... And we have
it, some once a quarter and some once a month and some
once a week, and that's our order and our procedure and
that's what we believe is the way. Is that all? Is that
all? "We must have the Lord's table, we must have
the Lord's supper, because... because, well, they did it
in New Testament times and it's quite clearly the Lord's
will that it should be had..." IT, IT, IT! See?
That's where the whole thing breaks down. It's an IT:
some THING! What IS the Lord's table?
What IS the loaf and the cup? It is the Church's
and the believer's CONTINUOUS declaration that CHRIST
is their Life - that they have NO life but
Christ! It is all Christ. That's not going to communion
service. You see the emptiness and hollowness of so much.
The meaning is good, all well meant... but oh, oh, the
power and presence of Christ - that's the Thing that
matters; not the ordinance, not the maintenance of the
order, but the LIVING Christ. Christ is our
Life; and that not only individually and personally, He
is that - He is MY Life and my only Life - Bread
and Wine - but He is the Life of the Church. He is
Corporate Life, Corporate Life.

I earlier
used that word "bits" of Christ. It's an
awkward word; pieces of Christ, fragments of Christ, for
when you take the Loaf and break it and you all, twenty,
thirty, fifty, hundred, two hundred, have that piece of
the Loaf, is that a piece in itself? No, it's the Loaf in
representation. "Seeing that we who are many are
one loaf." One Loaf! One Loaf, one Body. The
Lord's table is the declaration of that Life which finds
us, joins us, and binds us and holds us together, so that
divisions in the Church NULLIFY the very meaning
of the Lord's table. Divisions amongst believers rule out
the very significance of the Loaf and the Cup; are a
denial of it. It cannot be when you come to the Lord's
table. It's a contradiction because it is Christ and
Christ is not divided! Christ is not divided, Paul says
that doesn't he? Is Christ divided? No. The Lord's table
is then a representation of Christ as the ABIDING
Life of the Church, until He comes, until He comes...
that Testimony to Christ. Just Christ, that's all. Oh,
when you come to the Lord's table do remember that. What
are you doing? Just going through some thing that is a
part of the church form and order, of Christian
procedure? Oh no, I am here declaring one thing in two
ways, firstly that Christ is my very subsistence. I have
no life, I have no constitution, I have no maintenance, I
have no continuance apart from Christ. He is my
Existence. I declare that for myself, but here is a very
searching thing: I declare that my fellowship with other
believers in Christ is also my Life, that Christ is my
Life collectively by fellowship, by oneness, by the unity
of the Spirit and that if I break that, if I break that
or allow that to be broken; if I fail to try and repair
any breach between me and another child of God, I am
simply saying that the Lord's table is a mere form - it's
robbed of all its meaning, its real meaning and I am
strangling my own spiritual life. I am doing injury to my
own spiritual life because my Life is not only an
individual life, it's a collective or corporate Life. We
depend for our Life upon one another, brethren. Satan
will rob us of our Life by interfering with our
relationships. Let there be no mistake about it, that can
be very easily proved.

We go on...
what is ministry? What is ministry? Now, this doesn't
only apply to those who minister. Any who minister can
listen with all your ears, but those who are ministered
to, what is ministry? Is it to make people know what the
Bible contains as its subject matter from Genesis to
Revelation? Well, that's important, and very good, and in
some senses it may be necessary as a foundation... Is it
to give out addresses by research and study and get it
off onto a company of Christians? Oh, I could go on like
that, it's not pleasant. What is ministry? Any ministry
and all ministry that does not make possible and provide
for an immediate increase of the Lord Jesus, is not the
ministry of the Holy Ghost; is not the ministry of
Christ. ALL ministry must have as its IMMEDIATE
object, the increase and the building up of Christ in His
people. That is the test; not that it is interesting,
informative or anything else, but that here Christ is
being ministered: "I'm being brought right into
touch with Christ. Christ is being brought into touch
with me. Not a lot of words... no; I'm having to face up
to the Lord Jesus in some way today, the whole issue of
this word is: Christ! The living Christ". That is
ministry. That is ministry, you see it's like that, you
can take all that I'm saying back to Paul. Take it all
back, take it back into this second letter to the
Corinthians alone and you'll find that's it.

And then,
for the present, because of the time, this final
question: what is evangelism? What is evangelism? You say
evangelization is the business of the church. True. What
is evangelism? Try not to misunderstand me when I say
that the end that God has in view is not just to get
people saved - He wants them saved, He sent His Son that
they should be saved - we cannot be too much concerned
for their salvation. But that is not the end upon which
the eye of God is resting. Evangelism, the salvation of
men's souls with God is a related matter. It is to
people, the kingdom of heaven with Christ, Christ-people;
more and more in whom He may have His dwelling to be an
out-shining of Himself. Listen: "When it pleased
God to reveal His Son in me that I might proclaim HIM
among the nations". Evangelism is NOT
to get so many people converted. Evangelism is THROUGH
their being saved to INCREASE the measure of
Christ in this universe! That's a sufficient and a much
greater motive I think, than to be able to count heads
and say we've had so many conversions. Oh no, let us say
rather, "Christ is getting more and more ground in
this way!" Different mentality! And I am not quite
certain that the Lord is not very much reserved and
straitened because of this wrong idea - we put it the
other way. I believe that if really the whole concern in
evangelism was not to be able to count heads and say so
many converts and so many have signed the cards and so on
and so on, but to say "My, Christ is gaining
ground!" I believe that if that were more the object
and the motive, God would come into it more. Because I do
believe, dear friends - and forgive me for putting it as
my belief, that doesn't matter at all what I believe, but
test it by the Word of God - that where Christ is the ONE,
the ONLY, the FULL Object in view,
God's interest is the greater. God commits Himself. So it
must be in all this, the individual fragment of Christ.
Oh, to be here as Christ here, then the Father will be
with you; for the local companies to be here in this
neighbourhood as Christ, as Christ... God will commit
Himself to that. So in everything else, everything else
that we have mentioned: Christ, only Christ! Christ the
Beginning, Christ the End, Christ All in all.